Slog
News & ArtsThursday, December 31, 2009
Money They Didn't Need That Three Cents, Anyway
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 12:48 PM
The minimum wage is declining in Colorado tomorrow.
DENVER — Colorado's minimum wage will drop slightly in the new year — the first decrease in any state's minimum wage since the federal minimum was adopted in 1938.Colorado's wage is falling 3 cents an hour, from $7.28 to the federal level of $7.25. That's because Colorado is one of 10 states that tie the state minimum wage to inflation. The goal is to protect low-wage workers from having unchanged paychecks as the cost of living goes up.
1
technically, I can see their point, even if the artificial "basket of goods" used to measure inflation in no way matches the actual median household's expenditures in this country - or that state.
2
Yeah, far better to do it the way Colorado does it than to go back to the legislature periodically for an increase just to keep up with inflation.
3
Minimum wage in Alaska increases another $.50 to $7.75 tomorrow. It was also raised $.10 in July, the first increase since 2003.
4
Yeah, I'd say it's fair for it to go down now and then if it's tied in SOME way to how much money is going around out there in the first place.
5
in even better news today, although I'm sure someone will dispute it, oil is up above $81 and will hit $100 soon.
Time to switch to other fuels ...
Time to switch to other fuels ...
8
@2 Yup, that was precisely the idea when we passed that particular ballot proposition. Keeping the minimum wage tied to the inflation rate generally helps low wage earners (although obviously not in this particular case) and removes the minimum wage from the legislative arena where it tends to become a bit of political football.
I'm not generally a fan of legislation by ballot measure, but this is one of the better ones.
I'm not generally a fan of legislation by ballot measure, but this is one of the better ones.
9
@8 & @2 -- Voices of reason on SLOG?
Paul- It's highly unlikely (and this is widely agreed by industry experts) that most businesses will spend the administrative costs to reduce employee wages by $ .03/hr. It would actually cost many companies more in the short term to make that change than they would save. Hell, most companies pay more than that for payroll processing alone!
This "news" story broke WEEKS AGO in many other realms. If this is the best The Stranger can dig up I'm predicting larger wage decreases for reporters for free newspapers in Seattle.
Keep trying...
Paul- It's highly unlikely (and this is widely agreed by industry experts) that most businesses will spend the administrative costs to reduce employee wages by $ .03/hr. It would actually cost many companies more in the short term to make that change than they would save. Hell, most companies pay more than that for payroll processing alone!
This "news" story broke WEEKS AGO in many other realms. If this is the best The Stranger can dig up I'm predicting larger wage decreases for reporters for free newspapers in Seattle.
Keep trying...
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